Some FAQ’s about the first trimester of my second pregnancy

So after our exciting announcement last week, I thought I’d share some basic information about how the first trimester went. I honestly cannot believe how quickly this has gone so far! Be aware that this contains some very personal information and a little bit of TMI. If you’re squeamish or don’t want to know me that well, I totally understand and you might consider moving on to posts containing less bodily functions (growing a baby is a lot of work and at times kind of gross!). You might want to check out this recipe for Philly Cheese Steak Bombs that I posted last week. They were everything I dreamed of without all the added TMI 🙂

Finding out I was pregnant again and telling Justin:

I actually found out I was pregnant around my forth week (I thought I was almost 6 weeks along but they changed my due date, more on that later). We had just returned from our Toronto getaway and the whole trip I was feeling pretty exhausted. My stomach was a little off, my appetite was on and off. I actually felt really nauseous while we were in the office section of Ikea choosing desks and we both acknowledged that I could totally be pregnant.

I tested the morning after we returned and it was almost immediately positive (also again later in the day just because I couldn’t really believe it- seriously, I even snapped a photo on my phone of the positive test because I wanted to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me). Knowing that I had A’s one year photos / our family photos the next morning, I called Chelse out photographer and started plotting to surprise Justin at the session.

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In retrospect, testing beforehand was such a poor decision on my part because I am the WORST at keeping things to myself, especially where J is concerned. But I thought the surprise would be super fun so I chose to keep it to myself for that day. Let me just say, it was a SUPER long day!

I spent the whole day hanging out with a close friend from out of town and then later when some other friends joined us, all of my iPhone photos started showing up on our new Apple TV as the screensaver. Remembering that I had the photo of the test in my phone, I immediately got up and turned off the TV and our friends started laughing and giving me such a hard time about the “photos I didn’t want anyone to see” (there were totally some naked picture jokes- for the record I would never, ever take naked photos, much less keep them on my phone!). But after that J was asking what I was hiding. I told him not to worry about it and he eventually got bored with asking and went to bed.

We surprised him the next morning with a sign that the photographer had. He was a little bit in shock but completely thrilled. We actually told our very closest friends and family right away. Most other people were made privy to our big news with last weeks announcement, though there were many who suspected prior.

So did you tell A?

Yes, and we continue to remind her and she gets super excited and insists on choosing the nursery theme. Just kidding. She’s a one year old! I’m pretty sure she has no idea what’s going on and is way more concerned with getting another piece of watermelon and playing with her cash register toy.

Preparing to be a big sis!

Telling immediate family:

We were lucky enough to find out about the pregnancy while J’s parents were still in town so we were happy to be able to tell them in person. J picked up a Big Sister book and handed it to his parents after he asked them to read our gal a book.

We then Skyped my parents (my dad had a rough case of pneumonia so we were steering clear). I emailed my mom the announcement picture and they pulled it up while we Skyped. All of our parents were simultaneously surprised and thrilled.

We Skyped my sister and A was reading the book when she picked up. We texted the announcement photo to J’s brother and we Skyped J’s sister and announced it by telling our nephew we needed him to come up with another name. The story behind this is that when I was pregnant with A, our oldest nephew named her Tookie (and they still both affectionately refer to her as Tookie!). So J patiently explained that he needed to come up with another name and my sister inlaw picked up on it right away. For the record, he went with Ninjaface. It does have a nice ring to it, but we’ll see if that’s what he sticks with!

Due Date:

Is now officially March 16th, 2016 (dangerously close to St. Patty’s day!). There was a bit of confusion though. Apparently I ovulated later than I initially thought because all signs were pointing to a March 3rd due date. We went in for our dating ultrasound at what I thought was 9 weeks. It was at that appointment that they changed my due date to March 16th because the baby was measuring 7 weeks 5 day.

I was initially quite frustrated because I had been having a pretty easy time in terms of symptoms up until that point and was really hoping to be a lot closer to being out of the dreaded first trimester than I was. After I got over the initially hormonal pissiness, it actually made sense. The baby in the 7 week photos they had given us was way less developed than A had been at our first ultrasound with her (which was at 10 weeks).

We had an additional ultrasound at 11 weeks to confirm that the due date was still correct and as they had suspected the later due date was right on target. We once again got to see a gorgeous little 11 week old baby hanging out and being adorable in there (he or she was much more relaxed than A had been in this ultrasound- while she was having quite the dance party at this juncture, this baby was just chilling with the exception of the sweetest little hiccup-looking jump).

Ignore the six fingers I’m holding up- as it turns out, I was only around four/five weeks at that point (on the mayor of Bloatville and avoiding makeup, because I don’t believe in makeup on Sundays!)

First Trimester Symptoms:

Ugh, this was definitely different in some ways but also harder in some ways:

Morning sickness– The waves of nausea would come and go. The first bad one was around week 5 sitting in my continuing education for my licensing (gagging and securities training are not my favorite combo!) and that was especially rough but I made it through with only the basic gagging that happens when I brush my teeth. I did have a near-puke experience the day after I announced my pregnancy on here, again with a tooth brush. Thank God I had some old pretzels in my room or it would have been bad. It’s been smooth sailing since then (knock on wood).

Diarrhea– Sorry guys, total TMI but as you may remember from my first trimester of A’s pregnancy, this is something that was a mainstay in the begining. It was the worst at the end of the first tri this time around but I made a habit of eating bananas every morning, which helped a bit and this particular symptom is still coming and going a bit. I’d say it was more frequent last pregnancy, but way more uncomfortable this pregnancy. So quality over quantity (I know, I’m the worst!)?

Exhaustion- This has been way worse than last time, presumably because I have a toddler running around. But seriously, I’m totally overwhelmed by how tired I’ve been and unfortunately continue to be. You’ve probably noticed that I’ve cut it down to two posts per week from three. I hate to have to do this, and hope to kick it back up soon. But it’s been necessary since I can barely stay awake, so please bear with me.

Hormonal Sobbiness– Seriously, guys. I have all the feels. I really should have known that I was pregnant when we got home from Toronto and I had a good cry when A saw me and was all “meh” and then saw Daddy and freaked out with giddy happiness. Then I cried a few days later on my way to work remembering that same incident. The struggle is real.

Bloat– I swear, the minute the peestick dried, my gut was suddenly sticking out. It’s not even cute, I looked about 15 weeks at 6 weeks. I think my mother inlaw got a little excited thinking there might be twins in there (Sorry, Vicky! There’s definitely only one baby in there!) and I had a few comments from strangers on the same topic as well which were a little bit awkward but they came from a friendly place. The bloat went down ever so slightly around Week 8 but not enough to make a huge difference. My pants haven’t fit without a belly band since Week 6 and I’m finally forcing myself to break out the maternity pants (sweet comfort!).

Odd appetite- My appetite is so hit or miss which is to be expected. Last time it was a whole lot of miss and I lost a bunch of weight. This time I’m happy to report that I’m only at about 50% miss and the other 50% is leaving me ravenous and eating everything!

Spotting– Ugh, this is totally my least favorite of all the symptoms and definitely something new and unique to this pregnancy. I started getting light brown spots the day after our very healthy 11 week ultrasound. Cue the hormonal tears! I immediately called the on-call doctor (I had just returned home from work) who was very encouraging and said that this is very common. She looked at my record and said because we had such a healthy ultrasound the day before, the chances of something terrible happening were so slim that they were in the single digits. I think she was actually a lot more concerned that I could have an infection (I didn’t). She told me to lay low and not lift anything heavy, like A. Basically pelvic rest and to call if it got bright red or really heavy. I really appreciated her calming demeanor and her being so reassuring (all of the Dr’s in my practice are fantastic!) but my anxiety was already off and running. Lucking, the following week I had my 12 week appointment with my Dr. and felt much better when she immediately found a healthy heartbeat. She was also not concerned and told me the spotting usually lets up after the first trimester, which it did, thank goodness. It was SO scary.

Insomnia and anxiety– I don’t know what it is, but at the end of the first trimester (and still!) I wake up in the middle of the night- usually anywhere from 3am to 5am and cannot get back to sleep. Usually I’ll use the rest room, though that’s not what usually wakes me. And then I toss and turn with anxiety about various catastrophes that could occur. It’s totally irrational and frustrating because I’ve had such a good handle on my anxiety before this. I try to read my kindle to get myself back to sleep. 60% of the time it works every time. I hope this is not a continuous thing.

Movement- Once in a while, I think I feel tiny flutters in my lower abdomen. I’m not sure if it’s the baby or just gas. I never felt anything like that last time around because I had an anterior placenta which kept me from feeling movement until I was much further along. And even then it started with kicks not flutters. I’d like to be optimistic and say I have felt a teeny bit of movement starting right before 13 weeks but who knows.

Weight gain- At my first appointment at 7 weeks, I was up by 1 lb. When I went back in at 12 weeks I had lost that pound. So I’ll called it a draw and say that I haven’t really gained any weight. Yet…

Eleven weeks and tired as ever!

The baby’s sex:

We will find this out in October at our anatomy scan. I’m such a control freak and I cannot imagine not knowing. Hopefully this little sweetie cooperates with us. With A I felt strongly that it was a girl from the day I found out I was pregnant, and even more so after we had our first ultrasound (which was much too early to confirm). With this baby I sometimes feel like it will be a girl. But at the second ultrasound, I looked at it and said to myself, “this could totally be a boy.” Suffice it to say, I have a slightly stronger pull towards gal but nothing to write home about.

People ask us if we’d prefer a girl or a boy. I used to say boy because after our nephews came along I thought it would be super fun to experience having both sexes (they’re pretty awesome little boys!). Now we’re both split. J and I have talked a lot about how we both can’t decide which we’d like more.

On one hand it would be awesome to experience having a son. And you know I wouldn’t be able to resist all those sweet boy clothes. On the other hand, it would be so incredible to see A with a little sister. I love being a mommy to a girl and from a practical standpoint we already have so many great clothes and things, so that would help financially.

J and I both agree that we are going to be super excited either way. We will likely announce the sex once we know.

Names:

We have a couple names that we liked last time around but at that time nothing really held a candle to A’s name- we knew pretty early that this was our favorite name across the board (and even then we barely kicked around boy names because we never had any that we really loved).

J flat out refuses to discuss names until we know the baby’s sex. What a party pooper! I keep nagging him but he won’t give in. 🙁 As always, we tend towards very traditional names with very few exceptions. Last time around, J really did not want to share our baby’s name until she arrived. I’m not sure if that will be the case this time. I personally don’t care either way, so that’s up to him. People’s unsolicited opinions don’t really phase me, just as my opinions on names shouldn’t matter to other people. We shall see.

Thank you to everyone for all of the kind words and well wishes! After having a bit more difficult time conceiving A, it is even more of a blessing that God gave us this sweet baby so quickly. We are totally excited and slightly scared (but mostly really excited).

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2 Comments

September 18, 2015 at 7:28 pm
Ahhh lovely pregnancy symptoms. Brings back good memories. I would have been very frustrated to have been pushed back from 9 to 7 weeks because that first trimester is endless enough! But I guess if the baby isn't developed yet there's not much you can do! Hopefully sleep gets better soon! When I read that A wants to choose the nursery theme I was like HOLY SHIT THAT CHILD IS ADVANCED. Ha. By Friday nights I'm too tired for sarcasm to register with me.
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